Once Again The Pope Breaks With Tradition
He cancelled his participation in the Vatican’s official Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, delegating it instead to the dean of the College of Cardinals.
The Vatican never explained why Francis was skipping the official service.
Emilia Petrarca 3 days ago
Is Satanism Profitable?
It Appears That It is
If you thought Lil Nas X’s “biblically horny” new music video in which he gives Satan a lap dance was bold, wait until you hear about the sneakers he dropped on Monday to match.
Called “Satan Shoes,” they’re Nike Air Max ’97 sneakers reworked to allegedly contain a drop of real human blood in their red-ink-filled bubble soles. They also have a metal pentagram attached to the laces, and a reference to a Bible verse inscribed on the side. (“And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”)
Of course, Nike had nothing to do with this. “Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them,” the brand said explicitly in a statement over the weekend. Instead, Lil Nas X teamed up with MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based collective previously known for stunts like “Jesus Shoes,” which contained holy water. They also recently fashioned Birkenstocks out of Birkin bags.
Only 666 “Satan Shoes” were made in total, using the blood of six MSCHF employees, according to the Times. When asked asked who collected the blood, one of MSCHF’s founders, Daniel Greenberg, told the paper: “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.” The sacrifice paid off: At $1,018 a pop, the shoes are already sold out.
Ohio professor who rejected transgender pronouns can sue university: U.S. appeals courtMar 26, 2021 2:02 PM
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday revived a philosophy professor's lawsuit against a public university in southern Ohio that reprimanded him for refusing to address a transgender student by her preferred pronouns.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Nicholas Meriwether can try to prove Shawnee State University violated his First Amendment free speech and religious rights by mandating pronouns that he said did not reflect "biological reality" and contradicted his devout Christian beliefs.
Shawnee State had given Meriwether, who had taught there since 1996, a written warning about his conduct, and said he could be suspended without pay or fired for violating its nondiscrimination policy.
Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Amul Thapar said Meriwether was simply communicating on a "hotly contested" matter of public concern, whether one's sex can be changed.
He also said Portsmouth-based Shawnee State offered no proof Meriwether's decision not to use feminine pronouns affected his job, hampered school operations or denied educational benefits to the student, known as Jane Doe, who received a high grade.
"If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity," wrote Thapar, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
"A university president could require a pacifist to declare that war is just, a civil rights icon to condemn the Freedom Riders, a believer to deny the existence of God, or a Soviet émigré to address his students as 'comrades,'" he added. "That cannot be."
The appeals court returned the lawsuit to a Cincinnati judge who dismissed it in February 2020. Several interest groups submitted briefs supporting both sides.
Shawnee State and its lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
John Bursch, a lawyer at the conservative nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom who represented Meriwether, praised the decision. "Nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job," he said.
Big Tech Censors Religion, Too
By Josh Holdenried
March 28, 2021 3:19 pm ET Wall Street Journal
It’s not only politics. So far this year, religious groups and figures have been silenced by tech companies at a rate of about one a week, according to a new report from the Napa Legal Institute.
Consider LifeSiteNews, a popular religious news website. In February its YouTube channel was permanently banned by Google, which deleted all its videos. Google claimed its action was a response to Covid-19 misinformation but wouldn’t tell LSN which video had offended its standards. The tech giant had flagged LSN for a video of an American Catholic bishop criticizing vaccines developed with fetal cells. The website’s editor in chief said “our best guess is that the channel was taken down for our frank and factual discussion of the controversy around abortion-tainted medicines and vaccines.”
In January, Bishop Kevin Doran. an Irish Catholic, tweeted: “There is dignity in dying. As a priest, I am privileged to witness it often. Assisted suicide, where it is practiced, is not an expression of freedom or dignity.” Twitter removed this message and banned Bishop Doran from posting further. While the company reversed its decision after public opposition, others haven’t been so lucky.
He cancelled his participation in the Vatican’s official Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, delegating it instead to the dean of the College of Cardinals.
The Vatican never explained why Francis was skipping the official service.
Emilia Petrarca 3 days ago
Is Satanism Profitable?
It Appears That It is
If you thought Lil Nas X’s “biblically horny” new music video in which he gives Satan a lap dance was bold, wait until you hear about the sneakers he dropped on Monday to match.
Called “Satan Shoes,” they’re Nike Air Max ’97 sneakers reworked to allegedly contain a drop of real human blood in their red-ink-filled bubble soles. They also have a metal pentagram attached to the laces, and a reference to a Bible verse inscribed on the side. (“And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”)
Of course, Nike had nothing to do with this. “Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them,” the brand said explicitly in a statement over the weekend. Instead, Lil Nas X teamed up with MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based collective previously known for stunts like “Jesus Shoes,” which contained holy water. They also recently fashioned Birkenstocks out of Birkin bags.
Only 666 “Satan Shoes” were made in total, using the blood of six MSCHF employees, according to the Times. When asked asked who collected the blood, one of MSCHF’s founders, Daniel Greenberg, told the paper: “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.” The sacrifice paid off: At $1,018 a pop, the shoes are already sold out.
Ohio professor who rejected transgender pronouns can sue university: U.S. appeals courtMar 26, 2021 2:02 PM
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday revived a philosophy professor's lawsuit against a public university in southern Ohio that reprimanded him for refusing to address a transgender student by her preferred pronouns.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Nicholas Meriwether can try to prove Shawnee State University violated his First Amendment free speech and religious rights by mandating pronouns that he said did not reflect "biological reality" and contradicted his devout Christian beliefs.
Shawnee State had given Meriwether, who had taught there since 1996, a written warning about his conduct, and said he could be suspended without pay or fired for violating its nondiscrimination policy.
Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Amul Thapar said Meriwether was simply communicating on a "hotly contested" matter of public concern, whether one's sex can be changed.
He also said Portsmouth-based Shawnee State offered no proof Meriwether's decision not to use feminine pronouns affected his job, hampered school operations or denied educational benefits to the student, known as Jane Doe, who received a high grade.
"If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity," wrote Thapar, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
"A university president could require a pacifist to declare that war is just, a civil rights icon to condemn the Freedom Riders, a believer to deny the existence of God, or a Soviet émigré to address his students as 'comrades,'" he added. "That cannot be."
The appeals court returned the lawsuit to a Cincinnati judge who dismissed it in February 2020. Several interest groups submitted briefs supporting both sides.
Shawnee State and its lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
John Bursch, a lawyer at the conservative nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom who represented Meriwether, praised the decision. "Nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job," he said.
Big Tech Censors Religion, Too
By Josh Holdenried
March 28, 2021 3:19 pm ET Wall Street Journal
It’s not only politics. So far this year, religious groups and figures have been silenced by tech companies at a rate of about one a week, according to a new report from the Napa Legal Institute.
Consider LifeSiteNews, a popular religious news website. In February its YouTube channel was permanently banned by Google, which deleted all its videos. Google claimed its action was a response to Covid-19 misinformation but wouldn’t tell LSN which video had offended its standards. The tech giant had flagged LSN for a video of an American Catholic bishop criticizing vaccines developed with fetal cells. The website’s editor in chief said “our best guess is that the channel was taken down for our frank and factual discussion of the controversy around abortion-tainted medicines and vaccines.”
In January, Bishop Kevin Doran. an Irish Catholic, tweeted: “There is dignity in dying. As a priest, I am privileged to witness it often. Assisted suicide, where it is practiced, is not an expression of freedom or dignity.” Twitter removed this message and banned Bishop Doran from posting further. While the company reversed its decision after public opposition, others haven’t been so lucky.
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